It was a proud moment Monday evening at the Marion City Council meeting — one that I’ve witnessed many times before but not lately — when an olive branch of cooperation was offered.

The council and civic leaders had been wrestling with options regarding the city hosting a Heart of America Free Flight Association contest Father’s Day weekend at Marion Airport. Pilots who use the airport wanted to be able to use that weekend and civic leaders didn’t want to lose an opportunity to showcase the community and bring in much-needed consumer dollars to the local economy.

It was clear that the airport board wanted to work something out with the association. Now we only have to wait for the association to decide if it is still worth coming to Marion with a few concessions.

Thank you, airport board members, for your willingness to cooperate. We need more cooperation instead of stubbornness.

*****

Well, by the time the paper comes out the election will be over. What a strange couple of months this has been!

My hope and prayer is that, regardless of the results, Marion can come together again as a community. We need to support all who are elected — whether they were the candidates we voted for or not.

Give our elected officials some indications of what we want the city to accomplish. Maybe this would be a good time for a planning session for the community to share ideas about the future.

Doing nothing is no longer an option. We all are responsible for the success of this community, not just the elected and hired officials.

So, let’s put aside our petty differences and think about where we want to be in 10 or 20 years.

Send your ideas to us. We’ll publish them to get the ball rolling.

— susan berg